Programme Proposals (2025/26/27)
Daniel Rowland, solo violin & leader
Stift Festival Orchestra (for these programmes = strings: 4/3/3/3/2 plus harpsichord & harp)
“Vive Vivaldi”
Antonio Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in D Minor, Op. 1, No. 12, RV 63, ‘La Follia’
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531
Osvaldo Golijov: Tenebrae for String Orchestra
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin and Cello in B-flat major, RV 547
—interval-
Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed
“Seasons Unlimited”
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2 “The American Four Seasons”
—interval-
Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed is a composition by contemporary classical composer Max Richter. Despite the fact that Max Richter discarded three quarters of Vivaldi’s original material in this recomposition, the Italian composer’s musical DNA is present throughout the work. Violinist Daniel Rowland fell crazy in love with the work and is on a fierce mission to perform it wherever and whenever possible. A recording that was made with the Stift Festival Orchestra in September 2023, is scheduled for release in March 2024.
Video of performance at Stift 2022: click here (YouTube)
Video of performance at Stift 2023: click here (Vimeo) with video projections (available for concerts too!)
In addition to this 45-minute piece of music that is filled with invigorating, energizing and even arousing moments, Daniel Rowland and the Stift Festival Orchestra offer you two programme options:
Option A: Works by Vivaldi performed in their ‘original’ versions (ie. not recomposed). What Max Richter is in the 2020s for many people, Antonio Vivaldi was in the 1730s: total rock stars who compose absolutely thrilling music.
Option B: Premiered by Daniel Rowland as violinist/director throughout the ‘Earth4All’ spring 2023 tour with the European Union Young Orchestra, the young composer Carmen Fizzarotti’s The [uncertain] Four Seasons is – just like Max Richter’s work – a recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but with a strong emphasis on environmental awareness and the need to address climate change issues.
ABOUT DANIEL ROWLAND
Daniel has established himself on the international scene as a highly versatile, charismatic and adventurous performer, with a wide ranging repertoire. In recent seasons Daniel has performed with orchestras from the north of Norway and Cape Town, and many places in between. Performing violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, Elgar, Berg, Korngold, Weinberg, Prokofiev and Schnittke, he has worked with leading conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Jaap van Zweden, Francois Xavier Roth, Lawrence Foster, Anthony Hermus, Rossen Milanov and Andrey Boreiko. He loves championing contemporary composers and is a passionate advocate of concertos such as those by Vasks, Lindberg, Glass, Saariaho and Van der Aa. Daniel premiered many pieces, including Zebeljan and Panufnik’s violin concertos. After 12 happy years as first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet, Daniel decided it was time for more individual musical adventures in 2019. After performing all over the world and making numerous recordings, including the celebrated Shostakovich Cycle, he left the Brodsky Quartet. A passionate chamber musician, Daniel performs with artists as diverse as Ivry Gitlis, Heinz Holliger, Gilles Apap, Anna Fedorova, Alexander Lonquich, Nino Gvetadze, Michael Collins, Nicolas Daniel, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Lars Vogt, Alberto Mesirca, Maja Bogdanović, Willard White and Elvis Costello. Daniel is a frequent guest at the world’s most prominent chamber music festivals.Daniel Rowland was born in London, and started his violin lessons in Enschede after his parents moved to Twente in the eastern Netherlands. In 2005, Daniel founded the Stift International Music Festival in the bucolic region of Twente in the eastern Netherlands, where he grew up, with the 15th century Stiftkerk as the main venue. The festival has garnered acclaim as one of great intimacy, adventure and atmosphere. Daniel teaches at the Royal College of Music in London and gives masterclasses on a regular basis at a.o. the Davidsbündler Music Academy in The Hague. In July 2023, an episode of the Dutch programme Podium Klassiek was dedicated to Daniel who gave masterclasses to young talented musicians live on television. Throughout his Spring Tour 2023 as the violinist/director with the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra), he inspired many young musicians across Serbia, Greece, Poland, Romania and Macedonia through side-by-side rehearsals and performances.
QUOTES ABOUT ROWLAND
‘wonderful, ravishing in its finesse’
– The Guardian
‘both nakedly vulnerable and extremely virtuosic’ – NRC
‘astonishing sound and uniquely single-minded intensity’ – The Herald ‘powerfully intimate’ – BBC Music Magazine (5-star review + Chamber Choice, March 2023)
ABOUT THE STIFT FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
The Stift Festival Orchestra was born at the Stift Festival 2022, when Daniel performed Richter’s work for the first time (watch the video here). Straight after the 2023 edition of the festival, Daniel Rowland and the Stift Festival Orchestra jumped into the studios to record the work. This album is scheduled for release in March 2024 on Challenge Classics. Comprising some of Daniel’s most favorite musicians to work with, the Stift Festival Orchestra can easily be referred to as an all-star band. Some of its core members are Floor Le Coultre, Tim Brackman, Dana Zemtsov, Joël Waterman, Maja Bogdanović, Pieter de Koe and Nicholas Schwartz.
LINKS
Photos of Daniel Rowland: click here
Photos of Daniel Rowland & Stift Festival Orchestra: click here
Video of performance at Stift 2022: click here (YouTube)
Video of performance at Stift 2023: click here (Vimeo) with video projections (available for concerts too!)
Up to date biography of Daniel Rowland: click here